I have enrolled myself in an imaginary Anatomy Drawing Dojo today. We train really hard every day to perfect our drawing skills and to become True Anatomy Artists. I am looking for classmates to join me

Here are the Dojo rules:
1. Only serious students should apply. A real martial arts master would make you sit 3 days and 3 nights in front of the dojo to prove that you are serious enough. But I will pretend you already did

2. Choose one Anatomy or Comic book you like as you will be redrawing all the anatomy pictures from it till its finished.

3. Practice every day is recommended. You should decide the amount of time you are going to spend, get a kitchen timer and set it so that you can focus 100% percent of your attention on drawing during your training. Prepare a drink and background music up front, turn off your skype etc. You don't want the Dojo Master to catch you while checking your email! Trust me on this Last time he did I had to clean the dishes for all the other students for a month.

4. Introduce yourself, write why you want to become true anatomy artist, which book you are going to use and why you chose that one.

5. Post your progress here every day.

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

Hi Guys, my name is Peter and I have always wanted to be able draw cool CAPCOM characters like the ones from Street Fighter or Darkstalkers. I decided to enter the Dojo to become true Anatomy Artist and perfect my drawing skills. I will be drawing 2 hours per day (except of the days I am out of my atelier). I chose Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth as I like his stylized and very easy to read anatomy pictures. I believe this is the book original Capcom artists read. After I finish this one I will probably continue with one of the Street Fighter comics from UDON or original Game sprites

Here are my first 2 hours:

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

Drawing head is really tough. Not sure if its the best idea to start with it, as I believe muscles are much easier. I asked my master if we can skip it for now and then back to it later but he just hit me with his stick on my head. Probably some kind of Koan, I will meditate about that...

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

I am having problems with perspective especially worm's view. Got to focus more on keeping the features like eyes and mouth lined properly. I am still looking for classmates. Anybody want's to practice the anatomy with me?

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

Mm, Hogarth, good choice. I think those comics artists know his books inside out. Reminds me I should take a look at more of those myself. Do realize though that Hogarth's figures are very stylized, so you'll want to get rid of he stylization at some point. Marko Djurdjevic learned from his books and just look at the way he paints figures!
Keep this up!

Razz: I actually like the stylization a lot. My goal is even more stylized and simplified anatomy, for example Darkstalkers:

As for the Marko, I didn't know he used Hogarth. I met him personally in Prague, and I was under impression he is not a big fan of any kind of reference. He told us he learned the hard way, looking at real people But maybe this was just the way he started..

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

Hi Peter... ...GREAT teacher, and GREAT start for your sketchbook...
I had him as a teacher in real life many years ago..A true anatomy and figure creation drawing master of the highest caliber, and a very inspiring kind of guy, to say the least.. ..
You must always keep in mind that what he teaches has been passed down through the ages, by many a great artist...He picked up his style and knowlage of figure creation in deep space and anatomy from the study of Michelangelo, who in turn learned from the masters that came before himself..namely the anciant Romans who in turn learned it from those that came before them, ..the Greeks and so on and so on back into the beginning of time and the art of figure creation.
So to make a long story short,..It is a good idea to not limit yourself to one master, but to study them all..There are alot of GREAT ones out there to learn from, and each one of them has something that they can teach you..something that cannot be tought by one alone, but can only be tought by the many who have traveled this long journy of figure creation, the study of anatomy and draftsmanship.
You might as you go along in your studies, do some Michelangelo,Rubens, ancient Roman,Greek sculpture studies ect...There is a whole and vast world of masterpieces out there to study and learn from..Don't limit yourself or put selfimposed blinders on yourself, which only serve to blind you to that fact.
Just some suggestions that might be useful to you on this journy that you've entered into and are one..
Keep up the great work and studies...Looking forward to seeing lots more..
Glenn

Thanks for encouragement anandpg . I am not working on weekends, I will continue with the studies tomorrow. Meantime I am trying to finish my hobby project, low poly anatomy study. I am retopologising the shoulder right now . I would like to use it as an "art manikin" so I can practice drawing in perspective and crazy angles

Here are some screenshots, work in progress:

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

Thanks a lot for your feedback. That is very interesting information, I never thought about it this way. As for the sources to learn from, I probably didn't confess but I am kind of an reference maniac. I have in my library about 30 different anatomy books, from comic, manga and cartoon drawing through Hogarth, Bridgman, Loomis, right to the hardcore medical anatomies and dissection videos. As for the videos I have another 30 or so,David Finch, Alvin Lee, Marko Djurdevic, Freedom of teach, Drawingforce, Zack Petroc and many more. Not to mention all the photo reference sites I produce like Female Anatomy for Artist and Photo Reference for Comic Artists

In short I have been guilty of collecting all this fantastic material for years and not using it that much. So I decided now is the right time to do something about it and I want go through most of it. And It seems you agree Hogarth was a good one to start with Not to mention it's kind of symbolic as it was my first anatomy book ever, and I own it for almost 20 years

PS: now that you mentioned Michelangelo, I like his statues a lot I would love to add it to my study collection. What is the best source of the photos of his statues? Or are there some 3D scans available?

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius Anatomy Dojo

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